The Biden administration’s decision to award over a billion dollars to a Chinese company that manufactures coronavirus test kits has prompted outrage from congressional Republicans.

Rep. Michael Waltz (R., Fla.) compared the Pentagon's decision to award a $1.3 billion contract to iHealth, a subsidiary of China’s Andon Health Co. Ltd. that will supply millions of COVID-19 tests to the United States, to "paying the arsonist for helping put out the fire." Waltz said he was concerned that the deal further endangers America’s supply chains and that the United States cannot be reliant on a hostile country such as China, where the virus originated.

[...]

In announcing the contract with iHealth and two other companies, the Department of Defense said the administration will purchase almost 400 million kits in a deal that totaled nearly $2 billion. Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.) called the arrangement with a Chinese manufacturer "ridiculous" given China has "not been transparent one iota on what happened at Wuhan." Prior to the Pentagon contract, the FDA in December approved iHealth’s request to manufacture at-home COVID-19 tests for Americans.

Read the full story here.